Royal Albert Hall Bill [HL]

Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Moynihan of Chelsea (Con)]

If noble Lords will hear the end of my sentence, they might understand why I caught that impression. The Bill Committee allowed someone with no locus standi to address the committee for half an hour, and then refused to allow the hall’s representative to present the other side—

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent) (Lab)]

My Lords, I remind all Members of your Lordships’ House that we are to be comradely— although that is probably not the appropriate language. The use of language and how we refer to each other is very important, especially when it comes to being accurate.

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)]

My Lords, I was not going to speak because the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Hale, did much better than I could in explaining what we did on the committee. But I have to note that on the night before we met, having prepared for this for some weeks beforehand, the Royal Albert Hall tried to get me to recuse myself on the allegation of something that had happened 10 years ago: that somebody had praised me on a website. The night before, the hall thought I should stand down from the committee. That is how the Albert Hall dealt with us as a committee. We did not hear from the people whom we then decided did not have locus standi. Therefore, I hope the noble Lord will withdraw what he just said about our committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Moynihan of Chelsea (Con)]

I regret any upset that I may have caused the noble and learned Baroness. Recollections may vary.

I have not completed my speech. As we have heard from my noble friend Lady Stowell, the Charity Commission also wishes to hijack this Bill. However, the commission has the power to intervene directly if it believes there is a problem but has declined to do so. The Bill is straightforward and simple, seeking to regularise an informal arrangement, already prevalent for many years, whereby seat-holders voluntarily vacate their seats for scores of shows each year. The hall’s executives—not, as has been alleged, the seat-holders—choose which shows they vacate.

The charity benefits by millions of pounds a year from this and other voluntary benefits ceded by seat-holders. The hall’s financial success has happened precisely during the recent period in which the disaffected individual has waged his campaign against it, but the new money allows the charity at last to spend the needed up to £10 million a year to upgrade its vast Victorian grade 1 listed building.

The hall has now spent 10 years trying to get this Bill passed, eight of them in persuading the Charity Commission to give permission to proceed. It is now essential that the Bill be passed, precisely because of those disaffected three seat-holders that the noble Baroness, Lady Fraser, mentioned, who are taking the hall to the High Court in a bid to ban the transfer of benefit from seat-holders to the charity. If the High Court agrees with them, the charity will lose millions from its annual surplus. I am cutting out most of the rest of my speech and am about to finish.

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My Lords, I ask the noble Lord to bring his speech to an end. Because of the length of the interventions I tried to give additional leeway, but we are now exceeding our time and I would be grateful if he could bring his speech to an end.

[Lord Moynihan of Chelsea (Con)]

I will do my best; I have just a little bit left. As president of the Royal Albert Hall, I think the House deserves to hear from me, as against the many who did not know.

I and so many current seat-holders have, over many years, put our hearts into making the hall and the charity a renowned success. It has been anguishing for all the hall’s members to watch misunderstanding and misinformation about the hall and its governance gain currency in this noble House. I have made an overall loss in income—not a profit—over the 30 years I have owned my seats. I made a profit for the very first time last year, partly because I spent so many evenings in this House, and I paid tax on it, of course. Many other seat-holders are the same. I feel sad that seat-holders and trustees are being so misrepresented and traduced.

I beseech noble Lords to reject this unworkable, impractical, misconceived, unreasonable, wrecking amendment and to pass the Bill unamended. Unless that is done, the Royal Albert Hall could end up badly damaged—something that this House has in its hands to prevent.